What Would Lara Do?
by Rick Tacular
Summary: Just a little slice of live with Superman and his beloved daughter, Lara.


Superman floated in the upper ionosphere and soaked up the radiation from the waxing sun. It was a precious quiet time for him where he could escape, if only for a while, the responsibilities he voluntarily and willingly assumed from his adopted planet. He could still hear them, the cries for help and the pleas for mercy when he was this far up, but periodically the world was quiet, as if beginning to rouse at the break of day. This was a time for Superman to rest and recharge. Literally, he recharged by absorbing the sun's rays. At this height, it was the most direct method of doing so short of flying *into* the sun. Superman kept his eyes closed as he felt the waves of the sun energize him as a cup of coffee would a person waking in the morning.

After a time, the sun crested into full view and Superman was bathed in Sol's golden light. He smiled as he thought how appreciative he was for Earth's yellow sun. Also, he smiled because he felt a familiar presence alight next to him.

"Hi Daddy!" came the voice. With such a thin atmosphere no one other than a Kryptonian under a yellow star could hear it, but Superman could, and knew that the voice belonged to his beloved daughter, Lara. Superman turned his head, opened his eyes and smiled at his daughter with the love borne of being a parent.

"Hello Sweetheart." he said, turning and embracing his child and kissing her forehead. Lara smiled and returned the embrace to her father. The two began their decent, slowly, and Superman asked, "How was your day?"

"Oh, the usual: combat training with Mom and Aunt Artemis; history, trigonometry, science with Grandmother…oh!" she added excitedly, looking at her father with wide eyes, "Jon used the ankle on a statue of Athena while teething! Chomped right through it! Mom was so embarrassed and Grandmother looked like she was going to have an *aneurism*, and I swear I heard Strife laughing!"

Father and daughter laughed with each other at the thought of the toddler chewing on the leg of a Grecian goddess. Then Superman's face became serious as he heard something.

"Did you hear that, Lara?" he asked.

Lara craned her head, trying to pick out what her father had heard that she had not, or perhaps was not able to specify. While her hearing was powerful as her mother's and father's, it was not as well trained nor as experienced.

"On the west coast U.S." he prompted, "there's been a rock slide in a mountain range."

Lara looked to her father as he tilted his chin in the direction he wanted her to follow him to. The two of them sped away towards the west to investigate the problem.

On the road towards Big Bear mountain in California, the pair found the rock slide Superman had heard. Many boulders had piled up and blocked morning traffic, and one boulder had smashed down on the hood of the lead car, ruining it. Superman began to check on the people in their cars whereas Lara headed for the boulders. Superman saw her and rushed over to her to stay her hand.

"Hold on there, Sweetie." He said. "Let's wait for the authorities to tell us how to proceed."

"But, why?" she asked incredulously. "We can just grab these and huck them off the side and have these people on their way."

"This is so," Superman explained to his beloved daughter, "and we'd probably be able to do so without causing more problems, but we have to be careful. Yes, we have power; yes, we use our power for the benefit of mankind, but we have to use it carefully and responsibly. If we did just start grabbing rocks and throwing them around, we could potentially cause another slide by removing a rock that was holding up others. We could cause another slide lower down the mountainside by rolling the rock. That these things *could* happen means that we have to make especially sure that we *don't*."

Lara was mollified by her father's explanation. Instead of addressing the rocks the duo checked on each person, making sure they were safe and uninjured. After making sure that the people closes to the slide were indeed uninjured, the father and daughter observed the emergency responders arriving.

"Hello there!" Superman said as the teams began to arrive. "How can we help?"

The lead surveyor took assessment of the situation and directed Superman, Lara and his own team to clear off the road. The larger boulders were easily handled by the father and daughter and directed to be deposited where they would be out of the way and not cause any more chaos. Earth-moving machines were flown in by Superman or Lara and in a matter of hours the road was cleared instead of taking the better part of the day. When they were through, the two thanked the earth-moving crew for being able to help and flew off home to Themyscira.

*Author's Note*  
I had this in my head as a little slice showing some father-daughter interaction. As a father myself I love my daughter more than I realized I could ever love anyone, and I imagined that love Clark has for Lara. Also, I wanted to show that Superman, for all his power, cannot do absolutely everything perfectly and totally. In this case, he realizes he doesn't know the best and safest procedures for clearing rock slides, so he takes his cues from the experts who do. Could he and Lara zip off to the library and super-read on geology and emergency rock slide clearing procedures? Sure, but that also doesn't convey the experience needed. So he waited to be told what to do. I realize that this is super short and a tiny bit "after-school special-ish", but I just kind of wanted to hammer out this itty-bitty slice of live with Superman and the daughter he loves so much.


End file.
